Published two years ago as Modern Jihad
in a British edition from Pluto Press, this first full U.S. release adds a chapter on globalization and a new preface to what is perhaps the most systematic treatment in print of how terror is financed. Journalist Napoleoni has a doctorate from the London School of Economics, and she traces 50 years of Western economic and political dominance in developing Muslim countries: backing repressive, corrupt regimes, fighting the Cold War by proxy and blocking the legitimate economic ascendancy of millions of people. In sometimes riveting, sometimes pedantic prose, Napoleoni weaves interviews and first-person accounts of her encounters with terrorists with a fascinating close analysis of the connections among drug cartels, gunrunners and major Western economies in the network of financing for terror organizations: "billions of dollars generated by narcotics are laundered in the United States; between 30 and 40 percent enter the US economy, while the rest is pumped into the international illegal economy"—to the tune of $1.5 trillion a year. Avoiding the sometimes inflammatory political and religious rhetoric that characterizes many of the debates about terrorism, Napoleoni offers a sobering look at its economic roots. Agents, Roberta Oliva and Daniela Ogliari.
(Apr. 20)
